I am pleased to announce the Board of Australia’s export credit agency, Efic, has appointed a new Managing Director, Ms Swati Dave.

Ms Dave has more than 30 years’ experience in finance and banking across a range of sectors in both domestic and international markets.

She has held a number of senior roles, most recently as Executive General Manager at the National Australia Bank. She brings to Efic a strong track record of leading strategy, driving customer focus, risk management and people leadership.

With extensive international experience, she has led and grown complex P&L businesses in the United Kingdom, Hong Kong and Singapore, as well as here in Australia. Ms Dave’s breadth of experience has seen her work across a range of diverse sectors such as infrastructure, energy and utilities, renewable energy, and property.

I thank outgoing Efic Managing Director, Mr Andrew Hunter, for his considerable contribution. Under Mr Hunter’s leadership, Efic has had a strong focus on enabling small to medium enterprises (SMEs) to capitalise on export opportunities, including those created by the free trade agreements the Coalition concluded with Japan, China and Korea.

Efic supports Australian businesses become exporters. During the last four years Efic has helped almost 300 exporters with more than $500m of facilities. Currently more than 90 per cent of all Efic transactions support SMEs.

Efic has launched a range of initiatives to meet the specific needs of SME exporters such as the development of an online portal to support the Small Business Export Loan. The introduction of this facility has seen overall application approval times reduce significantly.

The Turnbull Government is committed to growing Australia’s exports to create new Australian jobs and drive economic growth.

Ms Dave will start in her role on 3 July 2017. I look forward to working with her.